MTSU Honduras Project

HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-05-12T21:42:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone -we are back safely in Tennessee (as you probably know). Sorry we didnt update for a few days -when we moved to the base we lost our internet connection. I'm sure everyone has stories to tell you adn we'll have pictures up soon! Glad to be here.

Moving

2006-05-08T11:04:00.000-07:00

We had a very exciting weekend! Saturday we went to an amazing waterfall and went swimming. Some of the group jumped off cliffs and stuff...I didn´t jump mom! We all get to swim in a pool that the waterfall formed. It was great!! Then we went to a restraunt on the lake. We all needed a break from working. Sunday we went shopping in Marcala. We bought umbrellas, blankets, and other things.
Today, we are all in the village. Some of us are painting, playing with kids, planting stuff, digging holes, building see saws, and research. Some of the theatre students are going on home interviews with us today. Jetta wants them to see the living conditions. The SW students gave out blankets, that we bought in Marcala with Active Minds and SW forum money. We gave out 15 blankets today.
We are moving to the Air Force base today. The have gift shops and air conditioning. AC is very important to the group from Mission Honduras bc we have not had AC!! We are going shopping tonight in a village that I cannot spell. The stores are staying open later for us.
Everyone is having a good time! We miss our family and friends!!

Fruitful Endeavors

2006-05-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

Whoa......today has been a long day and it is not quite over yet. You might have gotten this blog a little earlier, but we just weathered a power outage at Enlaces. As far as I know the power outage was for no particular reason which is ok. Things seem to happen around here for no particular reason sometimes.

Today I am writing on behalf of the agricultural project that is part of our Honduras invasion team. One of the faculty from the agricultural department at MTSU, Dr. Tony Johnston, is heading up a project that has grown and transformed somewhat from his original plans. Tony is keenly interested in educating people so that they can effectively use their limited resources effectively to feed themselves and to earn a living. He said today in a conversation that it is not difficult to sustain a family using your own agricultural resources, even in a very limited space, people just need to be taught how to do it effectively. Though we weren’t sure exactly how to go about the project, the original plan was to prepare an area on the grounds of the elementary school in Cane and plant a garden that we could teach the kids how to tend. When we first came to look at the space that we would be working with it seemed as if it was going to be a very daunting task to turn it into a garden. There were piles of rocks, broken blocks, building ruble, and garbage. In the past, the place had been used to burn the schools trash so there is quite a bit of buried trash. The soil itself is very packed and filled with volcanic stones. Tony tells me that the soil is not very good probably due to it being formed from volcanic ruble a long time ago.

So with all those obstacles in sight we were not sure how we would be able to carry out this agricultural project effectively in the time we had. But like most of this whole Honduras project, things just seemed to miraculously fall into place.

We began the first part of the project by moving stones by hand, and we had moved an impressive amount of stones, when the mayor of Cane allowed us to use his backhoe and dump truck. That same day, Tony and others went to pick up supplies someplace, but when they got there it was closed, but somehow they found out about an agricultural institute that was nearby. So they stopped there to talk to someone, and though the people were a little skeptical at first of these strangers coming into their facility, they quickly became excited about the project that we were doing in the school. One of the things that the institute does teach people from poor parts of Honduras how to use their agricultural resources; they also design top-of-the-line producing plants. They said that the local Mangos do not produce very well so they take a root system from one kind of variety and the top part of another variety, and they graft them together to produce small bushes with large fruit instead of large trees with small fruit.

The institute said that they will provide all the plants, and they will also visit the school continually after we leave to check on the plants and to help the students care for them. Amongst the plants that they will be providing are: bananas, guavas, lemons, papaya, mangos, and coconuts.

The very next day Nery Josué Ramos, from the institue, came to the school in Cane to meet the rest of us, to survey the area, and to get all the information that he needed. Tony and Nery talked, planned, and discussed future projects for a large part of the day.

The day after that Nery came back to the school with a computerized schematic of the area that we were going to plant in. At the same time the mayor’s backhoe showed up again so the backhoe driver finished clearing the area and then he dug holes according to Nery’s schematic.

Watching how excited that Nery and Tony were was like watching a couple of excited kids. The teachers at the school have also
become excited about it and have been helping all of today to build the fence around the future fruit tree orchard. The director of the school has also given us another area that we can prepare for growing vegetables. We knew that one of the things that the soil needed desperately was better fertilizer, and then today, the director of the school told us that he knew someone with a chicken farm. Then later a dump truck pulled in and dumped a load of huge bags of chicken manure. Also today, we went to the institute and picked up several of the plants that we were going to plant at the school in Cane, and we spread manure in some of the holes and successfully planted our first fruit trees at the school in Cane.

Whoa . . . . that was a long story. Anyway, Tony has been talking about having future exchange students between the local agricultural institute and MTSU which would be super cool. There are more cool stuff then I can write now. Cool stuff happening everyday. Thank you for your encouraging comments.

The MTSU students are super excited about their break over the weekend. We go to a beautiful lake and waterfall tomorrow, and then to Marcala in the mountains on Sunday.

Love,
MTSU Honduran project team and the people of Honduras

PICTURES!!! (updated)

2006-05-05T07:47:00.000-07:00

Just a few pictures to show you what it's like down here. I wish I could put up more, but the connection is sort of slow and we're having some technical difficulties.

The theater students performed the show twice yesterday. Once at the school (in the boiling heat!) and once at night in the square for the whole town. Went well! Not sure they totally understood it but they seemed to enjoy it.

More details soon - Focusing on these pictures right now cuz you guys have been asking! :)

At the airport in Tegusigulpa - it was a SEA of luggage.

Shots of Honduras from the car on the way to Comeyagua (where we're staying).

This is the courtyard at Mission Honduras where some of us are staying. Its really like a little paradise.

Pictures of La Cane - where the school and soup kitchen are. This is were the Social Workers are doing all of their work.

Dustin's "Verde" hair is a big hit. Cyntia decided to put it in pigtails then take a picture with my camera. She was not happy the with the boys in the background for ruining her masterpiece.

CJ has been a huge help with translating. She figured out some of the girls' games so we can play with them. In this one they go through the months and days of the year and you are supposed to spin around on your month and day.

The infamous Cyntia with my sunglasses.

First day at the school - recess

Luke and Cyntia playing Bop It.

Hope to get more up soon! Keep checking back!

Research Day

2006-05-03T13:47:00.001-07:00

Today, the social work students, started their research. Dr. Seime divided us up into sections of Cane. The research is very rough and emotional. We are asking very personal family questions, but we need this information in order to help the people in the village. The first house Amber and I went into was very sad. The mother has a 39 year old son that is severely handicapped. We were asking the mother what she needed for her son and she said she needed a new wheelchair for him. He got so excited when he heard ¨ a new wheelchair¨. Amber and I had to hold back tears. This is completely different than working with children with disabilities in the US. Children in the US have ways of getting the medical equipment that they need. We are doing the research for 6 more days. We have 700 houses to do and we have maybe 20 done so far.
Amber....People here are so humble. The first house we went into was very poor, yet they were so grateful. I had to hold back my tears. The way of like here is so peaceful. Everyone follows their own pace. I am very grateful for the opportunity to be here and I hope we can make positive changes for these people. I send my love to mom, dad, Annalise, and Bill.
Tasha...I met a 17 year old girl with Down Syndrome. She seemed very happy. The family, however, cannot afford for doctor visits on a regular basis. The children are getting parasites in their stomachs because of the water they drink at the school. Clementina is the older lady in the village who has made it possible for me to be here, everyone thanks God for her. Job number 1..provide funding for children with physical problems and number 2... fix the water problem at the school. Hi mom and dad!!
Kristen...The people of the village are amazing! They are friendly and humble. They are generally happy and they welcome us Hola! Hola! The children at the school are fun and very interested in what we are doing. This opportunity to talk with the people is amazing! I am very grateful. The people are grateful for us coming to their village. Very thankful! We are all having a great time learning about their way of life. Hi Josiah, mom , Joe! I love you.

As you can see, we have all been touched by this village. We love it here and hope to make a difference in the village.
Thanks to everyone that made it possible for me to come on this amazing trip! We are giving out some of the donations tomorrow to the school, at a big ceremony! Hi mom, dad, and leslie! Happy early birthday dad! I love you!
Tim...Amber and I thank you for the Godiva chocolates...estaban fabulosos!
Kelli

Research Day

2006-05-03T13:47:00.000-07:00

Day 1

2006-05-02T18:30:00.000-07:00

Day One in Honduras

I personally am staying in Mission Honduras. We got a 6 am wake up call to a breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs and fried plantains (like bananas), which were awesome. The boys have been talking about scorpions NON STOP since it was announced that one was found a few days ago.

We all arrived at the school around 8:30. One of the things we're trying to do while we're here is teach the kids some workshops, so today we started by introducing the Rhythm Workshop by going to each room and playing different beats on whatever we could find in the classroom. The kids seem real excited about us coming back to teach them to be a "wonderful rhythm band."

We were going to have a rehersal today in the school's courtyard - one of our performance spaces - but the bell rang and children spilled out into the yard and became entranced with our sparkly and noisy props so we just played with them instead. It was chaotic and amazing. The children are beautiful. They are so excited to see us - we're like celebrities here! Each cast member had a crowd of kids around them and we showed off thecircus skills that we learned for the show.

We aquired a bit of a leech - an adorable curly haired bright eyed one. This little girl named Cyntia came up to me when i was playing clap games with some of the little girls at recess. She pulled me down and wispered in my ear. I didnt know what she said so i thought something was wrong, but one of our translators (3 really cool young guys from Comeyagua) said she said she wanted to play too. I dont think she actually went to the school, becasue she wasn't in uniform and she hung around us all day. She participated when we introduced the workshops to the older kids. I had her on my hip for half of them and the other half she just joined in and started her own rhythm. Luke introduced her to the Bop It and she took to it quite quickly and got really good at it!

The little girls are quite taken with the blue eyed boys. Chris and Dustin both had some rather obvious admirers. Dustin's hair is quite the topic of conversation. We try to say words they know and we know in each other's languages and "verde" is one of them.

After the kids went back to class - we started one of our service projects. The school yard has lots of old rocks and bricks and such so we moved them over to a wall so we can later fix up the yard. We found an agricultural center that is going to donate the topsoil and banana, mango and lemon trees for the children to learn to take care of and eat from! It was a huge blessing to find. It was a huge undertaking though. We're pretty tuckered out and have dust in our lungs but its for the best.

On a more housekeeping, "hey mom and dad we're ok" note - We're ok. We have plenty of water and are eating WONDERFUL food. The mosquitos are pretty non existant so we're probably fine on malaria. Ms. A is rather adament about the sunscreen thing, so we're doing pretty good - although some of us are a tad burnt already. But overall - we're fine. Tired but fine.

Arrival!

2006-05-01T18:41:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to let everyone know we arrived safely and are settled in to either mission Honduras or Enlaces. The plane rides were fairly uneventful - although the touch down in tegusigulpa was scary! The pilot announced that there would be 'violent landing' and 'aggressive breaking" and that this was all "perfectly normal." We decended amoung mountains and dense clouds to one of the shortest runways in the world! But everything and everyone was perfectly fine.

Big thanks to Dale for the sandwiches and granola bars and chocolate and juice boxes and cookies!

Sorry for the short entry - more to come soon!
~paige

Waking up to a war . . . . . not really

2006-05-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

I woke up thinking that we were under attack today. There were loud blasts coming from right outside our window. It was a little unsettling until we remembered that today, on May 1st, is a national holiday. We have heard that it is kind of like our Labor Day. So people are off work and stores are closed today, and the blasts we heard are fireworks.
Later, we heard drums pounding outside so we ran out in time to see a fantastic high school marching band perform as part of a parade type event. The whole event sent Ron running for his video camera, and he was able to get some good footage.
I say it was a parade-type-event because it more was like a demonstration or a protest. There were countless various groups marching in this demonstration. There were many people that were demonstrating against some new legislation of the United States, but there were people demonstrating against a lot of various things. There was even a group of Puerto Ricans marching, flying Puerto Rican flags, and advocating for higher wages. Even the Taxi drivers were out protesting with their Taxis. The Honduran army and police were out watching the event as well, but there were no problems. Basically everyone was just having a bunch of fun with flags, signs, masks, and painted faces. It was like a big party. Our only concern is that Jenny and Ron will get slowed down as they drive to Tegucigalpa to pick up the rest of our group because there will be larger demonstration in the city.
I’m not sure if this was being protested as well at the event today, but we found out yesterday that all the public school teachers are on strike because they haven’t been paid in the last several months. From what I understand the new president of Honduras made several promises about education while trying to get elected, but the nations budget toward education was not enough to support his promises so he has ended up draining the funds for education. Hermes, who is the 27 year old principal of the school at Enlaces, has been guiding us around town and telling us what has been going on. Enlaces isn’t a government school either, so Hermes is not on strike to.
We stayed up late last night getting the finishing touches on the schedule for the week. We also wrote a movie where Nuria is queen of Spain, and she comes to Central America to do good things for the people; yeah, we get a little goofy if we stay up late.
Today is the arrival date for the rest of the MTSU group so we will hit the ground running tomorrow. I think that tomorrow our workshops start in the schools, our agricultural project starts if we can get everything we need to break ground, filming continues, needs for the theatre performance will be assessed, and hopefully breakfast, lunch, and dinner will happen at least near their respective times.
Adios amigos.

Exploding shower heads and other things

2006-04-30T00:26:00.000-07:00

Today was quite long not because we are really doing anything but hanging around and talking a bunch, but that is what we have been doing. Actually today started out with the first injury of the trip. Kyle got in the shower this morning turned on the shower for a split second and then turned it off. But the shower head rumbled and then exploded. It completely obliterated itself and left a bump on his forehead in the process. He is fine and thinks it is really kind of funny.
We bought oceans of water today for everyone to drink, and then we went to Mission Honduras to scope the place out and drop off the water. From the outside it looks like a bunker, but inside it has a beautiful garden. And the orphanage is right up the hill.
Though Ron has put his expertise to the work driving us across the mountains, today he was in fine performance as he broke out his camera and filming equipment and filmed an interview that Jenny had with Clementina. He has also filmed part of the streets of Cane as well as part of the interview that Jenny had with the director of the school in Cane.
The interview went fantastic with the director of the school. He said that he was really excited about the project, and he seemed really welcoming to the ideas of the workshops. He also wants us to do all our workshops that we had planned for the school. One of the coolest things is that the children are actually going to perform for us one of the days. So we can look forward to that.
We are also checking into being able to work with adobe bricks, cheese-making, cow-milking, tortilla-making, and other things.
Ron also bought us ice cream today which was fantastic, Jenny had a computer crash on her and lost the re-finished schedule earlier, but it is getting finished as we speak, Nuria has translated all interviews and has a continual great energy about her, and Kyle has eaten lots of Mangos. The Mangos are just coming into season right now and they are fantastic. Need I say more? They are worth flying to Honduras for.
We are still trying to get photos on this blog site, but our efforts are still thwarted. So maybe we will have some eventually.
It is like 1:30 in the morning right now so adios.

MTSU Honduras Project

2006-04-29T09:02:00.000-07:00

MTSU Honduras Project

April 29, 2006

The passengers cheered as our plane arrived yesterday in the mountainous surroundings of Tegucigalpa. Jenny, Nuria, Ronny, and Kyle arrived as the pre-tour group to prepare for the rest of the group that is arriving on Monday. We were surprised to be met by Clementina and Rene (the treasurer of Clementina’s foundation and a relative.) at the airport while we were picking up our van, but it was a great reunion. Though Clementina is a very small woman, you can tell that she is a woman with a great heart and committed passion for her people; She and Nuria talked continually and even sang songs as we drove over the mountains later on.
We stopped at the university in Tegucigalpa to find some information on José trinidad Reyes who was the man who founded the very university that we were in; his statue also stood over the parking lot in front of the library. Reyes helped bring theatre to Central America, and Jenny has been doing some preliminary research about him to see how the Honduran people view him, to see if he is a hero in their eyes or not. We were helped by quite a few people in our search and talked to several people about Reyes. Jenny got some good insight into how the people feel about him.
After we left the university, we followed Rene as he guided us over the mountains to Comayagua. The view on the way was spectacular. As we left Tegucigalpa, we could see the transition from mountainous landscape covered with the intriguing, compact Honduran houses, to forests sparsely dotted with a few homes some of which have a very neat local architectural look, and then back to the look of a city at Comayagua. There Rene bought all of us and Clementina dinner at an attractive restaurant where we were well fed with splendid local foods.
Then we arrived at Enlaces in Comayauga which is a huge recreation center for young people. There was music pumping through the complex as kids were everywhere playing basketball, soccer, video games, fuzzball, and ping-pong; and they were also able to use the internet. Sandy Burgess, the woman who runs Enlaces, was very enjoyable and gave us rooms which we took advantage of immediately because we were exhausted.
End of day 1.

Packing and getting oriented

2006-04-21T21:20:00.000-07:00

Ahh! Long day of preparations that should have been rather chaotic, but actually went rather smoothly. Although it still seems far off and somehow surreal all these last minute affairs are making the trip more and more real.

First order of the day - Packing Party! Everyone brought their suitcases to the crowded make-up room at the BDA so we could place donations, attach bright yellow tags and note where costumes and props would be. The room had bags strewn all across the floor and into the hallway and flip flops and text books spilling out of crates. We found that the limitations on luggage has changed, negatively. The total of length width and height was originally to be under 115 inches but now it cannot be more than 62 inches for packed bags and under 50 pounds. We believe it hasn't affected us but it was a bit of a scare.

Jenny started interviewing people for her project. She took people aside in the midst of this barrage of baggage to ask them what they were expecting out of the project and how they were feeling with the departure date being so close. She will continue to briefly remove people from activities to quickly pick their brains for the duration of the trip.

After all the luggage had been accounted for, we headed over to the JUB ballroom for a Study Abroad Pre-departure Orientation. What we thought was going to be a nice dinner with some information, guidelines and notes turned out to be a 4 hour study session. It was particularly rough for us since we've been planning and preparing to leave for almost a year now to a place we have a relationship with already, and aren't technically "studying abroad." A lot of the information simply didn't apply. We did however learn obscene gestures from other cultures and got to eat a scrumptious 3 course dinner complete with a fruit custard dessert adorned with neon green syrup and pansies - which many people were surprised to learn are edible!

Anyway - I believe the countdown has reached single digit status! Scary, exciting, stressful, etc. But I think we're gonna make it just fine.

2006-04-19T08:28:00.000-07:00

Just making sure it works. Honduras project news to come!